A long time ago I decided I was going to catalogue the sheep breeds I work and the projects they were used for in a blanket/wall hanging project made up of individual squares. I made the first square from my Ryeland fleece two years ago and have been occupied with finishing other big projects since, but before TDF begins and I get carried away with other big projects, I wanted to tick off some of the smaller tasks that have been on my to-do list for a long time.
I made a Romney cowl back in 2022 inspired by the Owler’s of Romney Marsh and decided that I would scale down the pattern to make a knitted breed square. The pattern is adapted from the Cable Button Collar from the Wensleydale Sheep shop and I reduced the stitch count to 32 stitches and only knitted one repeat of the cable pattern. Because my handspun yarn isn’t always an even diameter (the Romney certainly wasn’t!), this square turned out oblong, but after blocking it was slightly more square – I’m not too worried about this since I would much prefer the finished project to be whimsically irregular anyway. I do still have quite a bit of Romney yarn left over for further projects, and will probably try to get this cable pattern into them as I think it’s a prefect homage to the story of the breed.
This project will be ever evolving, but I’m going to make more of an effort to try and make a relevant breed square after each major project, so I don’t have a lingering to-do list!
Happy Crafting!
Loose Ends 